1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a sewing data processing device provided, for example, in a sewing machine, for processing sewing data containing a number of types of stitches and more particularly, to such a sewing data processing device processing sewing data containing embroidery patterns.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has recently been provided a household embroidery machine storing data of a number of embroidery patterns such as pictures and letters. A desired one or more of the embroidery patterns are selected by a user so that the selected embroidery patterns are formed on a workpiece cloth. Embroidery data (sewing data) required for executing the above-described embroidery forming operation is stored in an internal memory such as ROM provided in the machine or an external memory medium such as an external memory card. Upon selection of a desired embroidery pattern by the user, the embroidery data corresponding to the selected embroidery pattern is read from the internal memory or external ROM card. An embroidery forming operation is executed on the basis of the read embroidery data.
The assignee of the present invention has supplied embroidery machines of the above-described type and recently, further supplied external memory cards called "embroidery cards" storing embroidery data corresponding to embroidery patterns such as various character patterns including characters in comics, animations, television programs, television games and movies, and images of robots, vehicles and logos. The users can enjoy embroidering character patterns at home. These characters are usually protected by copyrights. The term, "character," will hereinafter have the meaning as mentioned above throughout the description.
In order to meet variety of users' demands, the above-described embroidery machine is desired to have a larger number of selectable embroidery patterns and a larger number of types of them. In this case, however, there is a possibility that it may take the users much time to find out a desired embroidery pattern or that a selecting operation may be troublesome. Furthermore, the embroidery patterns includes those which are selectable but are not always used. Additionally, since tastes or choice of the users vary with time, the embroidery patterns include those which were previously popular but are not always used at present. Accordingly, the embroidery patterns which are not always used needs to be eliminated from the internal memory or the embroidery card, or replaced by new ones which are popular at present. With this, the users' demands can be met and a sewing machine with a fine operability or embroidery cards can be supplied.
The above-mentioned embroidery data of the character patterns aims in principle at the users' enjoying embroidering at home for private purposes. No problem arises when embroideries of the character patterns formed with the above-described embroidery machine are privately used. However, the embroidering operation can be executed at a large number of times when the embroidery machine is supplied with the embroidery data. Accordingly, there is a possibility that a large number of character pattern embroideries formed with the embroidery machine may unfairly be used for business purposes or commercial purposes. However, the embroidery machine is not provided with means for distinguishing between private use of the formed embroideries and the use of the embroideries for business purposes or commercial purposes. These circumstances are applied to overall devices for storing and processing the embroidery data as well as the embroidery machines.